Millennials Put Coachella on Layaway
A majority of Coachella attendees used a payment plan to purchase their tickets, sparking a debate about Millennials’ financial literacy.
—Billboard
Last weekend marked the close of Coachella, Millennials’ favorite music festival. While headlines typically focus on celebrity sightings and fashion trends, this year, the spotlight shifted to a stat first reported by Billboard: an estimated 65% to 70% of attendees used a seller-designed payment plan to purchase their tickets (>$499). The Cut put it bluntly: Is this a “recession indicator, evidence of a mass financial-literacy problem, or both?”
Despite the mainstream media’s shocked reaction, this is classic Millennial risk aversion. But first, let’s explore how the Coachella plan actually works.
Attendees can lock in their tickets with a down payment as low as $19.99, then pay off the remaining balance in monthly installments. A one-time $41 service fee applies, and the full amount must be paid before the festival begins. If a payment is missed, there’s a 10-day grace period to catch up. After that, the ticket is canceled, but the amount already paid rolls over as credit for next year’s concert.
Structurally, the Coachella plan looks less like a modern credit product and more like an old-school layaway system. And that’s exactly the appeal. Millennials have long been skeptical of traditional credit cards. They prefer payment options with fixed terms, no compounding interest, and clear boundaries around risk. (See “Millennials: The Layaway Generation” and “Young Americans Love to Buy Now, Pay Later.”)
At Coachella, the worst-case scenario isn’t mounting debt—it’s a canceled ticket and a rollover credit. For many Millennials, that’s a far safer bet than carrying a 20% APR on a credit card. As for using a debit card, that avoids the interest-rate risk, but it imposes a big one-time hit to your bank account. A bit-by-bit layaway is easier to bear.
Still, Millennials’ appetite for financing is growing. In the past, they mostly used “buy now, pay later” plans for everyday items like beauty products and fast fashion. But in recent years, we’ve seen it creep into larger purchases—think Peloton bikes. Coachella tickets are just the latest milestone. And if current trends hold, Millennials will keep scaling up their purchases through installment plans.
What started as a tool for lipstick and leggings is fast becoming a preferred way to fund life’s bigger splurges.
As a Millenial, I grew very accustomed to near zero interest rates throughout the 2010s and early 2020s (COVID). Many many of my bigger household purchases in this period were made with zero interest payment plans. Those types of payment plans are virtually nonexistent now.